Strength
by S. J. Reneau
Summary: One-Shot. There is always a good reason to not underestimate your friends. A mission gone awry is one of them.


**A/N: This was a one-shot filled out as a request for an old rp blog on Tumblr. While the blog had been deleted to make for a new updated one, I saved the stories beforehand and decided to place them on my fanfiction accounts.**

"Ughn…."

"Buzz…?"

"Ugh…wha…?" It was hard, getting his eyes to open, but Buzz managed to do it despite their protest. Not that it made much of a difference; he could barely see anything, just lances of light filtering through cracks.

Wait…hadn't they just been in a large spacious mall not one minute ago?

As his senses started returning to him, he took note of an immense pressure on his back from his arms down. He tried to move to get rid of some of that pressure…and found he couldn't budge an inch. He tried to look over his shoulder to see what was wrong, and saw nothing but chunks of metal and concrete. Looking over the other shoulder revealed the same view.

Under his hands, however, he could feel the cool smoothness of linoleum tile. So he had been knocked to the floor and then buried up to his shoulders in rubble. But where had the rubble come from? And why was it still dark as a black hole? Think, Lightyear!

He and Ty had been sent to an event happening at a mall on Capital Planet—Ty! Oh craters, where was he?! Didn't he hear someone calling his name when he woke up?

"…Ty?"

A puff of air tickled the back of his neck. "Oh, thank the cosmos you're awake. For a while there you looked like you were dead."

Buzz turned his head until he was looking in the direction the voice had come from, and found himself face-to-face with Ty. From his current angle, it looked like his friend was sideways, but comparing it to the angle of the floor revealed that his head, at least, was up-side down.  
Following his body as well as he could with his eyes, Buzz saw that Ty was on his elbows and knees, his torso curved over Buzz's head as a makeshift ceiling. Turning his head so that he was looking "up," he noticed more rubble. Unlike that pinning him, however, this rubble consisted of larger pieces, with small holes that light and air were able to get through. "What happened?"

Ty snorted in derision. "They set off the cosmos forsaken bomb is what happened."

"What?! But the ransom note said they wouldn't set it off until 1700! That means-"

"It blew an hour early," Ty finished with another sigh, this one out of…anger? Exhaustion? Buzz couldn't quite tell. "They must have figured out we were here and panicked."

"But…the civilians…" Oh cosmos, the entire mall had been packed with shoppers and people attending the event. "We have to help. Ty, can you help dig me out?"

To Buzz's shock and disbelief, Ty shook his head. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

"What do you mean, 'busy?' You're just lying here!"

"I mean I'm keeping the both of us from getting crushed!" he ground out between clenched teeth. "We're completely buried, Buzz. I noticed the wall had come down on you, and as I was making my way to your position, I saw a part of the ceiling falling down. I was only able to get to you in time to cover your head."  
His eyes widening slightly, Buzz took another, closer look. Now he could see Ty's limbs trembling from the exertion, and that his skin was covered with sweat and another, darker fluid.

A grating sound emanated from the rubble around them, sounding suspiciously close and followed by a grunt from Ty. Glancing where he thought the noise had come from, Buzz noticed that Ty's body seemed closer than before. Taking a deep breath, Ty pushed the rubble back up to its original position with a groan, a pained expression on his face.  
Some more of the dark fluid started to drip from one of his shirt sleeves. "It's taking me everything I got to keep this crater slag up," he panted as he carefully rearranged his limbs for a hopefully more stable position. He then glanced at Buzz. "You were out for about ten minutes, in case you wanted to know. You having any trouble breathing?"

"I'm fine," Buzz said, a sour note in his voice. Look at this. His best friend was risking a slow and painful death protecting him, and he was unable to do anything to help him. Nothing. Cosmos, he was the Pride of Star Command, and he couldn't even move right now! He didn't remember feeling this helpless since the Uni-mind incident!

…Could this have been how Ty had felt all those times Buzz had rescued him?

It was a wonder Ty had managed to keep the rubble up for this long, considering how much pain he looked like he was in. Craters, his back probably felt like it was going to break any second. Despite the deep gasps he was taking, he was managing an even breathing rhythm, and his eyes were squeezed shut with intense concentration. And still he kept himself up, with only the slightest and quickly corrected falters.

While Buzz had always been quick to assure Ty that he was a good ranger, he had never really quite realized just how much strength the other man actually had. Maybe, if he had just put a little more faith in Ty's abilities instead of swooping in at the first hint of danger, he wouldn't have humiliated Ty so often at the beginning of their careers, he realized. Would that have changed anything on Canis Lunis?

Neither of them were sure how long they had been there—even Ty had lost track of the time. After seemingly forever, however, Ty's eyes suddenly snapped open, looking to his left. Noticing this, Buzz strained his own ears. Very faint sounds could be heard through the gaps in the ceiling rubble; machinery, large objects being moved, and shouts, one very familiar gruff voice drowning out the others at times.

"They're here," Ty said, confirming Buzz's suspicions. He then took a very deep breath and started yelling at the top of his lungs. "HEY! WE'RE OVER HERE! HEEEEEEY!"

Buzz tried to join in as well, but unfortunately found that his lungs were restricted by the rubble to a greater degree than he had first thought. He didn't let that stop him.

The scuttle of smaller pieces of rubble could be heard on the other side, soon followed by Rocket Crockett's voice. "Commander! We found them!"

As more rangers came running to pitch in with digging them out, Buzz felt a grin spread on his face. "We made it, Ty."

Ty let out a chuckle, strained yet relieved. "We're going to be okay."


End file.
